During the COVID-19 pandemic participants prefer settings with a face mask, no interaction and at a closer distance (original) (raw)
Related papers
Social Distance during the COVID-19 Pandemic Reflects Perceived Rather Than Actual Risk
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Interpersonal space (IPS) is the area surrounding our own bodies in which we interact comfortably with other individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping larger IPS than usual, along with wearing a face mask, is one of the most effective measures to slow down the COVID-19 outbreak. Here, we explore the contribution of actual and perceived risk of contagion and anxiety levels in regulating our preferred social distance from other people during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In this study, 1293 individuals from six Italian regions with different levels of actual risk of infection participated in an online survey assessing their perceived risk to be infected, level of anxiety and IPS. Two tasks were adopted as measures of interpersonal distance: the Interpersonal Visual Analogue Scale and a questionnaire evaluating interpersonal distance with and without face mask. The results showed that the IPS regulation was affected by how people subjectively perceived COVI...
Wearing a Mask Shapes Interpersonal Space during COVID-19 Pandemic
Brain Sciences
Social distancing norms have been promoted after the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, we tested interpersonal space (IPS) in 107 subjects through a reaching-comfort distance estimation task. In the main experiment, subjects had to estimate the comfort and reach space between an avatar wearing or not wearing a face mask. We found that IPS was greater between avatars not wearing a mask with respect to stimuli with the mask on, while reaching space was not modulated. IPS increment in the NoMask condition with respect to the Mask condition correlated with anxiety traits, as shown with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, rather than with transient aspects related to the pandemic situation. In the control experiment, the avatars with a mask were removed to further explore the conditioning effect provided by the presence of the facial protection in the main experiment. We found a significant difference comparing this condition with the same condition of the main experiment, namely, the dist...
Perception of interpersonal distance and social distancing before and during COVID-19 pandemic
Scientific reports, 2024
Since COVID-19 is easily transmitted among people in close physical proximity, the focus of epidemiological policy during the COVID-19 crisis included major restrictions on interpersonal distance. However, the way in which distance restrictions affected spatial perception is unclear. In the current study, we examined interpersonal distance preferences and perceptions at three time points: pre-pandemic, early post-pandemic, and late post-pandemic. The results indicate that following the pandemic outbreak, people perceived others as farther away than they actually were, suggesting that the distance restrictions were associated with an enlargement of perceived interpersonal distance. Interestingly, however, people maintained the same distance from one another as before the outbreak, indicating no change in actual distance behavior due to the risk of infection. These findings suggest that COVID-19 was associated with a change in the way distance is perceived, while in practice, people maintain the same distance as before. In contrast, COVID-related anxiety predicted both a preference for maintaining a greater distance and a bias toward underestimating perceived distance from others. Thus, individuals who were highly fearful of COVID-19 perceived other people to be closer than they actually were and preferred to maintain a larger distance from them. The results suggest that subjective risk can lead to an increased perception of danger and a subsequent change in behavior. Taken together, even when behaviors should logically change, the decision-making process can be based on distorted perceptions. This insight may be used to predict public compliance.
CSA 2021 - How does social distancing reconstruct body boundary?
Social distancing is one of the buzzwords in 2020. During the pandemic, national and regional governments take measures to maintain social distance. Through signs, it reminds citizens to stand in certain areas. However, these limits on social distance are artificial and vary from place to place, so it raises questions that how far away is effective in epidemiological transmission. In densely populated cities such as Hong Kong, even if there is a limit of two people per table and one meter between two tables, the implementation is uneven. Opposite to China government’s measures to low down to zero case, social distancing is a reluctant choice in western countries. The two different ways should also be discussed. The social distance established for epidemic prevention challenges and reconstructs the traditional social distance. In different cultures, there have been conventions called "social distance", such as defense social distance, normal social distance and intimate distance, but influenza makes people distant and crave intimacy. This paper discusses the contradiction of the body from the social body, the aesthetic body and the biological body.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of unprecedented safety measures, one of them being physical distancing recommendations. Here, we assessed whether the pandemic has led to long-term effects on two important physical distancing aspects, namely interpersonal distance preferences and interpersonal touch behaviors. We analyzed nearly 14,000 individual cases from two large, cross-cultural surveysthe first conducted 2 years prior to the pandemic and the second during a relatively stable period of a decreased infection rate in May-June 2021. Preferred interpersonal distances increased by 54% globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase was observable across all types of relationships, all countries, and was more pronounced in individuals with higher self-reported vulnerability to diseases. Unexpectedly, participants reported a higher incidence of interpersonal touch behaviors during than before the pandemic. We discuss our results in the context of prosocial and self-protection motivations that potentially promote different social behaviors.
The social impacts of social distancing on sociality in the context of covid
The social impacts of social distancing on sociality in the context of COVID-19: Applying Simmel's concept of social geometry. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381312153\_The\_social\_impacts\_of\_social\_distancing\_on\_sociality\_in\_the\_context\_of\_COVID-19\_Applying\_Simmel's\_conce..., 2024
One of the recommended interventions against the spread of COVID-19 is ‘social distancing’. This means maintaining a recommended physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other. At the same time, the public is being advised to maintain or even increase social contact. Influenced by George Simmel’s concept of social geometry, the objective ofthis paper is to demonstrate that ‘social distancing’ has adverse impacts on sociality. Human beings areinherently social beings and spatial proximity enhances the intensity and quality of their interaction. Bycreating physical separation, ‘social distancing’ is leading to social isolation and attendant psycho-socialproblems. This was a desk study based on a review of the literature, media reports and personal observations. The paper presents evidence of the adverse impacts of ‘social distancing’ on human sociality from Botswana and Zimbabwe. The paper concludes that while ‘social distancing’ is a practical way of containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, it has significant adverse impacts on sociality, resulting in the loss of community. We recommend the promotion of offline and online social media platforms to enable people to interact without co-presence.
Social distancing decreases an individual’s likelihood of contracting COVID-19
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Past research has established the value of social distancing as a means of deterring the spread of COVID-19 largely by examining aggregate level data. Locales in which efforts were undertaken to encourage distancing experienced reductions in their rate of transmission. However, these aggregate results tell us little about the effectiveness of social distancing at the level of the individual, which is the question addressed by the current research. Four months after participating in a study assessing their social distancing behavior, 2,120 participants indicated whether they had contracted COVID-19. Importantly, the assessment of social distancing involved not only a self-report measure of how strictly participants had followed social distancing recommendations but also a series of virtual behavior measures of social distancing. These simulations presented participants with graphical depictions mirroring specific real-world scenarios, asking them to position themselves in relation to...
The physiological correlates of interpersonal space
Scientific Reports
Interpersonal space (IPS) is the area around the body that individuals maintain between themselves and others during social interactions. When others violate our IPS, feeling of discomfort rise up, urging us to move farther away and reinstate an appropriate interpersonal distance. Previous studies showed that when individuals are exposed to closeness of an unknown person (a confederate), the skin conductance response (SCR) increases. However, if the SCR is modulated according to participant’s preferred IPS is still an open question. To test this hypothesis, we recorded the SCR in healthy participants when a confederate stood in front of them at various distances simulating either an approach or withdrawal movement (Experiment 1). Then, the comfort-distance task was adopted to measure IPS: participants stop the confederate, who moved either toward or away from them, when they felt comfortable with other’s proximity (Experiment 2). We found higher SCR when the confederate stood closer...
Social distance, seating arrangment in public spaces
Social distancing, seating arrangements in public spaces, 2020
Viruses and diseases can be easily spread indoors nor outdoors, so the problem is serious because it cannot be seen with the naked eye either in all spaces nor the particular public space. The purpose of this writing is, helping people to understand the alertness and situations that can help reduce the risk of negative impacts and keep this case as small as possible. In order to fulfill this goal, a teaching case was built, which understands more about social distancing, which can be done with the existence of a plan to implement design with social distancing rules. Adopting this practice when designing with the correct rules of social distancing can have a big impact on society and other environmental spaces. The challenges faced will translate how the teaching case and solution, when done simultaneously can create a positive impact for the whole world. Keywords: COVID-19, Interior design, personal spaces, territory space, social distancing